Beat Me To It

For months I’ve been planning various projects/trips I will be able to do with my Electra Meccanica Solo EV. One of them was to visit most of the charging stations near Winnipeg to report on their condition and give directions to reach them. Amongst those published stations was the one in the parking lot of the Best Western Hotel in Headingley, Manitoba, just west of Winnipeg. For months, users of Plugshare have been reporting it wasn’t working, once for being frozen in ice, and once afterwards because it just wouldn’t charge a car. Well, someone beat me to it. They’ve just reported that the charging station was working yesterday. Hallelujah! I don’t have to wait until I get my Solo to report this useful component of the charging infrastructure.

About Robert Pogson

I am a retired teacher in Canada. I taught in the subject areas where I have worked for almost forty years: maths, physics, chemistry and computers. I love hunting, fishing, picking berries and mushrooms, too.

15 Responses to Beat Me To It

Grece wrote, “The great Doctor asked numerous times for such, and still as of today you have not produced one iota of evidence. Normally you are the type of individual that gloats and shows off, but in this case you do not, which leads me to believe that you have not ordered anything.”

Look. I live in a $500K house. I live in a neighbourhood where almost everyone has multiple personal vehicles. I have a driveway big enough to park 15 cars. I have a 3-car garage. I advocate driving smarter electrically and admire the Solo’s price, design and efficiency. Why would I not order one and why the Hell should I tell you every detail of the transaction? Perhaps I’ll show the receipt after the Solo is in my possession. There’s no reason at all to do it now. Whether or not I have made a deposit hundreds of others have.

The great Doctor asked numerous times for such, and still as of today you have not produced one iota of evidence. Normally you are the type of individual that gloats and shows off, but in this case you do not, which leads me to believe that you have not ordered anything.

At the present rate of production it is doubtful EMV can survive let alone deliver

When did you come to this conclusion Robert? I mean, all of us here have been saying this since you came up with the idea of this silly EV to begin with. You won’t produce evidence of pre-ordering, either by producing your order number and/or won’t provide photographic evidence. You’re in no rush to obtain a used Leaf let alone any EV for that matter. To me and the rest of us here, we can happily conclude you are a hypocrite.

Grece wrote, “you never put a down-payment and two, its questionable you will ever receive it in time.”

I don’t know where Grece got the idea that I did not put down my deposit but I have the receipt right here beside my desk. The picture of a red Solo signed by the CEO of EMV that accompanied the receipt was proudly displayed in the living room by TLW for the wedding party yesterday. There were several questions about it and stimulating discussions.

Grece, repeating a lie doesn’t make a truth. I made the deposit many months ago in the middle of winter. At the present rate of production it is doubtful EMV can survive let alone deliver my Solo so everyone except Grece is motivated to make the changes required to ramp up production. I assume that will happen this summer when certification is done and the last obstacle to production is eliminated. EMV can easily buy parts and build Solos and sell them before the bill is due. That’s how manufacturers work. With steady production will come steady revenue and EMV will survive and grow. There’s nothing stopping them now, not even Grece’s curse.

The electric car is rather dubious for two reasons. One, you never put a down-payment and two, its questionable you will ever receive it in time.

The solar panel array, is a pipe-dream you will never complete, as you bitch over switching tires from a vehicle.

Planting trees is admirable, but your tiny lot does nothing. In fact, the next owners may just bulldoze them to make room for a guest house, pool and outdoor kitchen patio. If you want to RE.ALLY plant trees Robert, get off your ass and follow the work of Shubhendu Sharma at Aforrestt, David Milarch and Akira Miyawaki.

Educating the youth? You have a Master in Physics, never taught physics and ruined students by ramming Linux down their throats. Tell me, how many of your students became the important in life?

and finally, bird houses. Only a bird-brained person, such as yourself, would ponder such an activity in retirement.

DrLoser wrote, “You have never done anything whatsoever to make the world a better place, Bobbie.”

I build bird-houses. Several clutches of tree swallows have eaten mosquitoes in my honour.

I educated youth. It’s rare but on several occasions students have thanked me for making their lives better.

Even TLW grudgingly admits that some of the trees I’ve planted do make the world a better place and she’s asked me to try again another row. Two of the five Ponderosa Pine seedlings I planted survived and are looking fine. She’s loving raspberries and asparagus and hasn’t deliberately killed any of my plantings recently. I’m about to order more seeds of five species.

I was talking with a neighbour recently. He has a magnificent pear that’s not bearing much fruit. I told him how to make nesting holes for crevice-nesting bees. His world could be better next year. Mine will too. I have several more trees that should begin to bear fruit next year. I predict that in three years we will have a surplus of fruit. We will spread the joy to others.

My solar setup and Solo EV will make the world less polluted and more efficient.

A quick top-posting comment before the fatty bit from Bobbie. Is the world a better place with TLW driving a SUV? No it isn’t. Was Bobbie or TLW responsible for choosing the Cadillac, now sadly deceased? I presume TLW. Does Bobbie have any influence over the choices made by TLW?

Go on. Imagine what my guess is on that one.

instead of berating me for trying to do something to make the world a better place.

You’re not trying to do anything of the sort, Robert. The only two things that interest you are:

1) Being so cheap and mean and unwilling to pay a single other person for any service rendered whatsoever that Charles Dickens would have rejected you as being far too preposterous for an imaginary fictional character.
2) Incessantly bloviating about what other people should do in order to fit whichever momentary passing little fancy you happen to trip over. (Note that none of this bloviating involves spending your own money: see the overriding principle in item 1.)

You have never done anything whatsoever to make the world a better place, Bobbie.

Deaf Spy wrote, of the Balkans, “having an EV would be a total pain in the ass. I would have to carry at least a dozen connectors and cables.”

That’s a pity. Are you vigorously advocating that governments adopt a standard like they do for power plugs? Here, everyone has a standard 120VAC plug and the car chargers either have Tesla’s or the J1772 plug. I know of a couple of places that have some other outlet for 240VAC, so I can get buy with three pieces of cord in my trunk. The “fast charge” thing is still not universal and for commuters using Solo it would be of no advantage.

You see, where I live, and that would be the Balkans, having an EV would be a total pain in the ass. I would have to carry at least a dozen connectors and cables. Every trip of more than 250 – 300 km would have to be planned very carefully to the point of being simply unfeasible. An acquaintance of mine got himself a Tesla S from NL and I can tell you, all the fun ended at Vienna.

That is why I am looking forward a good diesel engine for my next car. It is more economical than gas, hence pollutes less, and there is diesel on sale everywhere. I will wait for 10-15 years before I consider EVs.

Grece expounded, “So you want to do FLOSSy things, with a non-existent vehicle, that you do not own, how chivalrous and cavalier of your Robert.”

Huh?! EVs form a miniscule part of the market for automobiles and governments, businesses and individuals are advocating for them and Grece takes time out of his busy day to suggest something sinister without saying what?!

I suggest Grece go out to Nature, say some hill-top with a pleasant view or the deepest darkest part of a forest and sit and think until he/she knows the meaning of life, his/her life, or anything at all, instead of berating me for trying to do something to make the world a better place. I know what I’m doing but poor Grece seems lost.

For months Iâ€™ve been planning various projects/trips I will be able to do with my Electra Meccanica Solo EV. One of them was to visit most of the charging stations near Winnipeg to report on their condition and give directions to reach them.

So you want to do FLOSSy things, with a non-existent vehicle, that you do not own, how chivalrous and cavalier of your Robert. But seeing that you do not offer anything back to the Linux community, how would a miser accomplish this task?

What about you offer up your garage to some of the 500+ refugees that came into your province this year?

I don’t know what the rating of the heaters is on the Solo but reports are they decrease range ~10%, so driving two hours to use 16kWh is 8kW power. 10% is 800W. Nominally, charging takes 3h at Level 2, so that’s 6-7kW of charging power. 800W would take half an hour longer for a full charge, but that’s not the usual case. I don’t consider that serious. At 120V it would be much more of a problem but I intend to have Level 2 at home and most charging stations out there are Level 2, so it wouldn’t increase charging time that much. Perhaps I could use the time for a nap…

Face it. Most of the time I will be driving Solo in spring, summer or fall and I won’t likely use the heater although I might use the fan.

Grece wrote stuff. It was mostly irrelevant. I wrote about stations near Winnipeg. Further, Carberry is probably within range the way I drive. Heaters can be engaged while charging and/or I could go inside for a sandwich or I could wear suitable clothing. In short, Grece is losing it.

Why not find some place further away, such as Carberry? Oh wait that’s 121 miles away and even then, you must wait three hours at the maximum voltage and power rating. How are you going to keep yourself warm??

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. Now that I'm retired I still use GNU/Linux on every computer in my home except the smartphones which run Android/Linux.

Lately, I've been giving lots of thought to the world I inherited and which I will leave to my descendants. I'm planting grass, trees, flowers and vegetables in my large lot and I've ordered a Solo EV. I plan to charge my Solo by means of a tracking solar array. Life is good if you have a purpose. I do.